I'm glad you mentioned it, Doc.
I noticed, as I watched the game last night, that the big Aussie was throwing a bunch more straight changes than normal. Or at least they appeared to be straight changes as I was watching with the sound off and their seemed to be no lateral movement on those pitches...only the verticle kind.
I was impressed. Very! My sense (minus sound) was that he used it as his out pitch last night. Set 'em up with a smoking 89 mph speeder and then screw 'em into the ground with the ephus job.
What's in the clubhouse water cooler? Fister, Vargas and now RRS have gone positively Greg Maddux on us. Or has Adair done a Robert Johnson and sold his soul?
Doesn't matter, I suppose. I like it!
Any comment on why Aarsdma's 93 and 94 mile fastball exploded past people. Delivery? Or was it in conjunction to the 3 AB's they had had facing RRS?
=== Foreword ===
Ahem.
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=== Preamble ===
Tonight was military appreciation night, and at one point the announcer asked all past and present servicemen to stand. The crowd gave a warm ovation.
About twelve men stood up in the five or six sections around us in View level. One was in our section, down in front. He took off a Coast Guard cap, raised it to us, and slowly spun around, beaming and acknowledging the applause for 15 or 20 seconds. I'd normally guess from his demeanor that he'd stormed a pillbox and won a CMH, but am not sure that's Coast Guard duty. Plus, he was too young to have been in Hanoi.
LOL. That was fine, but perhaps a bit out of proportion as to our intended ovation :- )
.............
Along similar lines, I'd like to note that the hairpin turn in April pivoted around Doogie's fantastic 3-hit shutout. Remember that Doogie matched zeroes in that game for fully 7 innings, and if he'd hadn't, we'd naturally be 2-10 right now instead of 6-6.
I'd like everybody to spend the evening in quiet reflection upon the salvation that Doogie wrought on the 2010 season, please.
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=== Top Thrill Dragster ===
Supposedly hits 120 mph on the way down. Didn't know that skydivers could hit that, and certainly not in the first 400 feet. Wonder what the G's are.
Hey, it's only been twelve games, and the M's have given us a full season's worth of vertigo...
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=== Turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really THINK so ===
Inspired and focused off of Doug Fister's zoned-in BOR performance, Rowland-Smith had an idea out there.
Brooks gives RRS credit for 40 offspeed pitches against 53 fastballs, of which fully 30 were straight changeups. When you've got real good deception, two good offspeed pitches, and a dubious fastball, why wouldn't you pitch Japanese?
Don't get me wrong: 3 strikeouts against 3 walks isn't going to lock down an ERA title run. And that leaves Hyphen at 9 walks, 5 strikeouts on the season. The homer that Ordonez hit was vaporized, and several line drives found leather.
n terms of durability: starters healthy and ready to go for World Series Game One tomorrow night. (2) RRS pitching off his change-speed game, in Moyer / Braden style. (3) In terms of performance: we know only what we know (as of right now).
- 1 - Bedard
- 2 - Felix
- 3 - Lee
- 4 - Kelley
- 5 - RRS
- 6 - Fister
- 7 - Vargas
- 8 - Snell
- 9 - Hill
Ya, I know about Pauley and t'other guys. And I'm a little tongue-in-cheek about Bedard -- Felix would go 8 IP in such a game and Lee has an ERA of about 0.32 lifetime in the postseason. But given a Bedard feeling good, the 10-11 strikeouts per nine are tempting...
Still. If RRS is willing to pull the string on them, he's the second BOR guy.
Cheers,
Dr D
Comments
Think it was Hardball Times last year, or Dave Allen, who demonstrated that Aardsma's fastball looks faster to hitters because of his release point and the locations he tends to use (typically up in the zone where it's hard to get on top of the ball).
We would add that the funky, short-arm, deceptive delivery also increases the apparent speed.
When David Aardsma throws a 94 heater up in the zone, it is as hard to see, apparently, as somebody else's 97-98 fastball.
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Very hard to catch up to a letter-high 94 fastball, but of course the risk is that if it gets squared up, it's going to the warning track at least...
This was my first game of the year in attendance, so my first exposure to the DA intro in the ninth this year. I know they did it also for Putz when he was here, but it sure smacks of marketing for the trade deadline. Sure he has been effective with five saves in our six wins, but he is no Mariano Rivera. Maybe the intro just helps get his juices flowing, but it's just not my style. I must be getting old.
I was also struck (not literally), by some young males wearing jeans hanging so low they could barely walk. Down at the field level seats, they couldn't take one step after another up the aisle, but had to take only one step at a time, as the crotch of their jeans limited their stride. So funny.
Another family across the aisle from us was nearly constantly texting/surfing on their cell phones throughout the game. They probably spent >$120 for their tickets in total, but they generally missed the game. I don't get it. Others gabbed on their cells in the aisle, totally oblivious to the fact they were blocking peoples' views.
Finally, I was appalled at the general obesity of the fans at the game, though I suppose very representative of our society. The guy in front of me was so big, he had to put his arm around his girlfriend, not to get cozy, but becuase he couldn't fit in his seat. The stadium food is no help. Health care reform will not save us from ourselves.
Great game, but the lack of offense scares me.
I am starting to think he can be one of those closers (a la Mitch Williams) who survives and saves ballgames for five+ years using entirely effective wildness and a hard to hit fastball.
“It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing”
was over Rocker. :- )
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Hey Watcher, we had the M's game on TV Friday night was it (?) and two high school girls were sitting in the lounge chairs behind home plate with cell phones... centered in the camera were the catcher, pitcher, hitter, ump, and those two...
Do not believe they saw a pitch before the 7th, and what do those chairs cost in the very front row of Diamond Club? ... it was more entertaining than the game!